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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

We're either a one decade or two from having the necessary robotics technology needed to keep humans out of harm's way in these situations.

http://singularityhub.com/2013/12/20/nasa-unveils-valkyrie-a...

It's really up to us if it's going to be 10 years or 20.

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We already can make simple ones, it's a matter of radiation shielding. They don't have to be huge expensive humanoid ones. Robots were used in the Chernobyl cleanup 25 years ago although they ended up getting fried from the radiation. I haven't done much research on the topic of what exists today regarding workarounds for electronics in radioactive environments (if someone has domain knowledge, please tell!), but I suspect we could fix that.

For some interesting history, look up "Bio-Robots" to see how the Soviet Union dealt with the disaster. Basically they sent up humans in heavy lead suits for no more than 45 seconds at a time. Run up, get three or four shovelfuls (they were clearing radioactive debris from the roof), get out.

There is much more to it than getting hardened electronics. For example, I was talking with some Westinghouse engineers and the biggest problem with the robots at Fukushima were the cameras. The radiation crazes the lenses and you become blind.

Search and rescue is a hard problem and is terribly underfunded. It is also funded in a way that makes long term improvements hard. There is very little money until there's a disaster, then there is a ton of cash you have to spend right now.

Out of curiosity, do you have anything more on what destroys the lenses? Heat/melting? Some form of radioactive dust?

See the end of

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=711577&page=4

on why it isn't entirely straightforward to send in a robot.

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